Going Public: The Art and Practice of Public Scholarship

A Kahn Institute Short-Term Project

• Kickoff meeting: Thursday, January 21 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Second Monday of each month during spring 2027 from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m.
  • February 8
  • March 8
  • April 5
  • May 10

Important Dates

Monday, October 26 at 12:15 p.m.
Project information session for faculty and staff. Participants may join in person at the Kahn Institute (21 Henshaw Ave) or register to join by Zoom. Lunch will be provided.

Friday, October 30
Due date for faculty and staff applications.

Organizing Fellows

Cheng Xu, Government
Naila Moreira, Writing & Public Discourse; Journalism Concentration

Project Description

We live in a time of heightened public distrust for experts and scholarship. As “truth” and “fact” themselves become contested terrain and college campuses the sites of political and partisan contention, the distance between academic knowledge production and the broader public become increasingly consequential. The insularity of academic disciplines and specialized modes of communication can exacerbate the problem as declining public visibility of what scholarship contributes can make scholarly knowledge easier to dismiss, distort, or repurpose by bad-faith actors. Meanwhile, systems of academic promotion and advancement tend to discourage time spent on public writing and communication, even while scholars with an already robust public-facing practice are held up as exemplars of the impact of the academy.

In this spring 2027 Kahn project, we begin from the premise that scholarship is a public good. From that starting point, we will consider what it means to produce knowledge not only for scholarly communities but also for the broader public. What responsibilities, if any, do scholars have to communicate their work beyond the academy? How can they do so without sacrificing the standards of rigor or intellectual independence? And what happens to scholarship when it enters the public debate?

This project will move beyond discussing these questions to encourage participants to develop their own approaches to public-facing scholarship. Faculty will consider which audiences they hope to reach, which forms of communication best suit their work, and what ethical and professional considerations arise when scholarly work enters public spaces. Through readings, conversations with visiting speakers, and hands-on workshops, participants will explore a range of tools and strategies for communicating their scholarship to broader audiences. Done thoughtfully, these practices can extend the reach and impact of individual research while also helping faculty build a more visible public and institutional presence.

As an interdisciplinary exploration of public scholarship, this Kahn project invites colleagues from across all divisions and departments of the College to consider questions and practices including:

• Does expertise necessarily confer authority? When and why should the public trust experts, and when is skepticism justified?
• Who is/are the audience(s) we are trying to reach, and how should our communication change depending on the audience?
• What tones, styles, and approaches are most effective for communicating complex ideas without oversimplification?
• How can scholars work effectively across different types of media, including op-eds, interviews, podcasts, social media, public lectures, short-form video, and other forms of communication?
• How should scholars respond to criticism, disagreement, trolling, harassment, misrepresentation, and other forms of bad-faith engagement?
• What obligations accompany public visibility, particularly when communicating politically sensitive, contested, or potentially harmful research?

This Kahn seminar seeks a multidisciplinary team of participants to explore the relationship between public communication and journalism, the academy, and their own scholarship.